


Dead Girls Don't Party

by EzzyAlpha



Series: 100 Themes Challenge [6]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: 100 Themes Challenge, Doomed Timelines, Dream Bubbles, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 21:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/872289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyAlpha/pseuds/EzzyAlpha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose is doomed and dead and stalked by a time fairy.</p>
<p>[100 Themes Challenge: 90 - Nowhere and Nothing]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead Girls Don't Party

When you awake, it isn’t like waking up from a long night’s rest. It’s more akin to when you are distracted and you find yourself in a room, unsure of what you were going to do.

You are dead. This much is certain.

You did not expect anything to happen afterwards, however. It never was a part of your belief system (not that you had much of a belief system) thus, you never gave it any thought.

You had thought you would fade and that would be all.

Instead you awake, in a daze.

“Could you perhaps be a fairy of some sort?” you ask the odd woman in front of you.

She grins, reaching a hand out towards you. She is dressed in red, a strange robe, and messy black hair sticks out from her hood, along with two curling ram horns. Her skin is an odd grey color. Behind her, two red, translucent wings span, fluttering slightly.

“I could be! But not exactly.”

You take her hand.

“I’m dead.”

“Yes, you are!”

“That was not a question.”

-

Aradia is chill, you’ll give her that much. Reminds you slightly of Dave, at times. Only at times, because her infallible calmness is real.

You look at her, musing quietly to yourself, sitting around in your pretty lavender dress, backless, long sleeved, tight at the waist-line, and absurdly high stats. Spending months in a doomed game meant hours of alchemy work. You liked that. It was distracting.

“You keep coming back.” You say. You’re sitting in John’s bed. Well, you’re sitting in a memory of John’s bed, but the distinction is hazy at best.

“Oh, sorry.” She says, eyebrows rising. You shake your head.

“I wasn’t complaining. I just don’t understand why.”

You shift on the bed, leaning back on your elbows. She’s looking at you but you can’t read her face. She makes no attempt to explain, so you elaborate.

“There are hundreds of Roses in the dream bubbles. Thousands maybe. Yet, you keep coming back to talk to me.”

Aradia shrugs.

“It’s not like you’re the only person in the dream bubbles I talk to!”

She laughs and gets up.

“Speaking of which, I should go. You know, got souls to carry and all.”

“Right.”

She leaves as suddenly as she appeared and you fall back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

-

“How come you don’t ever speak to anyone else?”

“Have you been spying on me?”

“No. I just know these things.”

You look down at her, swinging your feet off the tree branch you are sitting on, and you smirk lightly.

“I’m rather introverted, you know.”

Aradia places her hands on her hips and pouts up at you.

“The dream bubbles are filled with every possibility you can imagine and you choose to simply not do anything.”

You shrug.

“I’ve been getting a lot of reading done.”

She throws her hands up in the air and turns to leave. You don’t stop her, but a little part of yourself regrets that.

-

“Is it because of my doomed disposition?”

She doesn’t answer. The stars up in the sky move around in little circles, some faster than others, little streaks of light. You don’t know if this is a memory or a fantasy.

“I mean…” you continue “Being in a game without any possibility to win after knowing two of your best friends are dead for, what, three months? It tends to make you a little moody.”

You look over at her. She’s staring upwards. You try to study her face but you can’t get anything. You get up and start walking away.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.” You say and look back. She has sat up and is looking you over.

“Can I go with you?”

“Sure.”

-

“So, how’s the real Rose doing?”

Aradia rolls her eyes.

“The real Rose? You mean the Rose from the main timeline?”

“Real Rose.”

“You are as real as any other Rose.”

“I’m also dead.”

“But you are real. Don’t forget that.”

You pause.

“How’s main Rose doing?”

“Good.”

You close your eyes and lay back on the soft sand of your land.

“And Dave? My Dave, not main Dave.”

“Davesprite?”

You open one eye.

“Davesprite.”

“He’s not terrible.”

“Will he die?”

“It’s the destiny of everyone in an offshoot timeline to die.”

“But he’s not in an offshoot timeline anymore and he’s not a Dave copy anymore either.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“Will he die, Aradia?”

“I don’t know.”

You smile.

“Finally got you.”

“I never said I knew everything about death.”

“You sure act like it.”

She giggles quietly.

-

“You’re very insightful, you know? Well, I mean, insightfulness is a very Rose thing. But you, more than others.”

“Maybe that’s because I do a lot of thinking. Don’t have a lot more to do. I think and I spend time with you.”

“That’s by your own choice.”

“I like it this way.”

“It’s not healthy you know.”

“I’m dead.”

“Good point.”

“What do other Roses do? Are you going to tell me they have tea parties? No, hold on, I know. Dark gods rave, only dead Roses allowed in.”

“What are you talking about…”

You chuckle.

“I don’t know.” She says “It’s not like I spend a lot of time with other Roses.”

“Why.”

She pauses. You don’t press her for an answer.

“It’s just not right.”

You roll over in bed to look at her.

“Am I your one and only Rose?”

“Maybe.”

-

“And that’s when I fell off the tree.” You say, leaning back against Aradia, her thick hair functioning much like a pillow. She remains quiet.

“What are you pondering on?” you ask.

“Everything is fleeting, you know? Even the dream bubbles will cease to be someday.”

“Are you attempting to say you’ll miss me when I’m gone for good?”

“Yes.”

It is your turn to remain silent. You hate to admit it but it’s one of those moments in which you don’t know what to say. You close your eyes, trying to think of something, anything.

“Saudade.”

You feel her perk up slightly and turn to look at you.

“What?”

“It’s a word from the Portuguese language, back on Earth.”

You briefly muse on the fact that most languages are now dead languages, given everyone who spoke them are dead.

“It had no direct English equivalent.”

Aradia remains silent, waiting for you to continue.

“It is a deep emotional state, comparable to a melancholic nostalgia, pining for something or someone, that sometimes, very often, can never return.”

She doesn’t say a word.

“I like it.” You mutter.

“I’m okay with death. But I don’t want you to disappear.”

“Maybe I won’t. There are no guarantees that the dream bubbles will cease to exist.”

You hesitate.

“Or, if they do, that you will live long enough to see them go.”

Aradia turns to look at you, mouth open.

“I don’t want you to die.” You say before she can get a word out.

“Then what do you want?”

“I want you to live. And by that I mean _live_.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Go back to your half-dead boyfriend or something. Better half-dead than full dead.”

“Rose…”

“What?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too. However, and you know this…Everything is fleeting.”

“That just means you have to make the best of the time you have. Trust me on this, time is my thing.”

You turn back to look at her fully and you are now facing each other.

“I’m telling you, you can leave.”

“And I’m telling you I don’t want to go.”

You stare into her eyes, before dropping your head, silent.

“So, what happened?”

You look up again, quirking an eyebrow.

“After you fell off the tree?”

“Does it really matter?”

“It does to me.”

You pause.

“Well. My mother wasn’t too happy about it…”

Aradia smiles and you can’t help but smile back.

 


End file.
